Apparel designers, manufacturers, and retailers are continually researching and developing new types of garments that they hope will spawn the next significant fashion trend. Advertisers and large companies that have made substantial investments in logos and trademarks are similarly searching for new and innovative methods of advertising that will display their mark to the consumer market. The two groups commonly cooperate by placing company logos directly onto apparel. Such cooperation gives advertisers inexpensive mass advertising for their client companies, as it gives apparel retailers a popular name to place upon the garment, thus increasing the ultimate asking price. Increased revenues are therefore realized for both parties. It is very common, for example, for a person to wear a shirt bearing the logo of his or her favorite N.F.L. football team across the chest of the shirt. Such a shirt increases the public exposure of the N.F.L. team, as it increases the asking price of the shirt. Both parties receive a corresponding benefit.
There are no known garments or articles of clothing that change color when exposed to higher or lower moisture levels. Such garments could be manufactured to display different company logos or designs. This type of garment could be used to advertise company logos or merely as a novelty item. Such a garment has many practical applications, including use as a swimsuit, bathing suit, wet suit, scuba diving suit, surfing suit, or other water sport uniform. It can also be used as a casual or formal garment.
Garments that respond similarly to temperature fluctuations by changing colors are known in the art. When the garment reaches a predetermined temperature, it maintains a first color that changes as the garment warms. Such a garment is distinct from a moisture sensitive garment in that it requires a different stimulus to trigger the color change. Temperature sensitive dyes are required to effectuate such a reaction.
Inks and dyes that change color when exposed to varying moisture levels are known per se in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,990,284, issued Feb. 5, 1991 to Lauterbach et. al., discloses various known types of inks and dyes that exhibit this property. Lauterbach specifically discloses a moisture indicating ink that is printed upon a substrate that changes colors at a preselected ambient moisture. This device is generally used as a visual moisture indicator to alert users to extreme moisture levels in packaging. The freshness of the packaged product is then easily determined without having to open the package. One example disclosed is a conventional cigarette package. Lauterbach neither discloses nor hints at utilizing this type of ink in connection with an article of clothing. Such a use as disclosed in Lauterbach is quite different, functionally and aesthetically, to using this ink in connection with an article of clothing.
Boehland, U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,848, discloses an athletic jersey that changes colors by changing panels. Such a jersey requires the user to manually attach and separate panels from an outside portion of the jersey. Accordingly, such a jersey requires its user to manually operate upon the panels of the jersey to effectuate a color change. No color change arises via an automatic reaction with water or other fluid.
Packler et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,299, disclose applying phosphorescents to fabrics for glow in the dark designs. Such a device does not result in any color or design change upon the face of a treated garment as a result of a reaction with water. The required stimulus in this disclosure is the strength of light.
Martone, U.S. Pat. No. 2,228,033, discloses an invisible ink for fabrics and paper that becomes visible when wet. Applying such an ink to fabrics merely results in causing an invisible ink to become visible when wet. Since the invisible ink is colorless prior to saturation, there is no identifiable, reversible color change from one color to another. No identifiable design or color change is disclosed, specifically for use in conjunction with an article of clothing, bathing suit, or the like.
Tronstau, U.S. Pat. No. 2,210,862, discloses adding a moisture indicating substance to a gel substance that is placed within a shoe. The gel substance is added to the shoe as a moisture absorber. The moisture indicating substance is red when saturated with humidity and deep blue when dry. Such a device has no color changing effect upon the outside or inside of the shoe itself in that it acts only within the gel substance.
Accordingly, there is a need for an article of clothing that reacts with varying moisture levels to change the color and/or design upon a surface of the article. Such an article could be imprinted with popular logos and trademarks, thus creating new and inexpensive publicity for trademark owners or the like, while increasing the asking price and quantity of the article sold. Even without logos or trademarks upon the surface of the article, such a color change upon the article creates a new novelty item, thus resulting in new clothing lines to perhaps spawn the next fashion trend.